North-West Floods_Summary_June 2013.pdf - Food Security Clusters

FSC follow-up assessment SUMMARY, North-West Floods, Bangladesh April 2013
Figure 1: Percentage of farmers who resumed Boro production after floods (source: Male FGDs)
Food Security
During this assessment the Food Consumption Score (FCS) was used to compare the diet of the
population surveyed. As there is a clear link between incomes and FCS, it looks as though the limiting
factor for people to have an acceptable diet (i.e. FCS over 43) is the capacity to buy items other than
rice. This information was used as a base to calculate the essential needs presented in the summary
of needs section (see page 46). Over the five districts, 62% of the population is in the criticalborderline
range with a diet essentially based on rice. As most of the population need to buy rice in
the market, the price of this item impacts directly upon the people with lower incomes and in turn
affects their capacity to achieve good food security. The money that families with an ‘acceptable
high FCS’ are spending on food is almost double than the people with a poor FCS. This is worst in
Sirajgonj and Jamalpur where the cost of basic food is higher than in others districts and where
households need to spend nearly 2000 BDT a month more to achieve a good FSC. Bogra and
Gaibandha are the districts with the highest number of critical and borderline FCS.
Table 1: Food Consumption Scores (source: Female FGDs)
Poor
Borderline
Acceptable
low
Acceptable
high
Cost to
achieve
Acceptable
high FCS
Bogra 27% 68% 5% 0% 3850 1697
Jamalpur 6% 53% 30% 11% 4375 1814
Kurigram 14% 35% 33% 19% 3860 1257
Gaibandah 41% 40% 9% 10% 3713 1867
Sirajgonj 2% 23% 27% 48% 4367 2356
Cost gap to
(poor to
Acceptable
high)
Nutrition
The nutritional status of children aged 6 – 59 months was assessed using Mid Upper Arm
Circumference (MUAC). The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) estimated using MUAC across the
five districts surveyed is 14.4 %. The prevalence of Global Acute Malnutrition by MUAC in Kurigram
is much higher than the other districts and this is extremely concerning. Kurigram also has the
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